Pittsburgh based startup Petuum, which aims to offer companies with tools they need to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, announced today that it has raked up whopping $93 million from investment giant SoftBank. Advantech Capital and other investors also participated in what was series B round for Petuum.
The company’s CEO and founder, Eric Xing, said that the latest capital infusion will be used to hire engineers, salespeople and marketers. Xing added that these new hires will expectedly help the company to commercialize its AI software.
Petuum was founded with the noble mission to democratize AI solutions, making even the most advanced AI technology accessible and affordable to every company. The one interesting fact about this tech startup, unlike most other tech startups, is that it is not based in Silicon Valley. However, Xing claims that company’s offbeat location has rather proved to be a boon in hiring good & highly skilled laborers.
Meanwhile, for SoftBank, the latest investment in Petuum is yet another reflection of Japanese giant’s increasing faith in emerging cutting edge technologies like AI and machine learning. However, SoftBank’s investment in Pittsburgh based startup did not come from the much talked about $100 billion Vision Fund. Rather Investment was part of firm’s normal investing activities.
With hype around AI growing in leaps and bounce, venture capitalists and investors are not shying away from making huge bets on this emerging technology. Even big tech companies like Google, Facebook & Microsoft have been bitten by Ai’s unprecedented hype, with these companies pouring millions of dollars in AI research.